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Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

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Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#81
post #63

The topic is nice, but above all I thoroughly enjoy the writing. I feel like I get a lot more done precisely because I don't like to eat frogs. I sleep until I'm rested. I don't touch my computer until I've had tea on the balcony. I work on what feels right, when it feels right, for as long as it feels right. If the weather is nice, I'll hop on my bicycle and forget about work. But when something sparks my interest,…

Sounds nice to either have no real outside demands upon your time, or to sufficiently lack emotional attachment to anything you do such that it can’t exert pressure on you.

That said, I don’t know if I’d actually want to live that dispassionately.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#83
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny because in Germany we have a similar phrase "swallowing the toad". I think the idea is to swallow them whole. I think French cuisine generally only serves frog legs, not whole frogs?

Not just French. They're popular in many parts of the South US as well, particularly in areas with Cajun/French influence. And delicious. And yeah, just the legs.

Also in some areas of Italy, there used to be restaurants where frog (only legs, usually fried) were the main dish, though I believe they are little by little becoming more rare.

Also they once were a very "poor" (please read as cheap) meal, while nowadays they tend to be "gourmet".

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#84
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, as a 44 year old French that has never seen frogs on a restaurant menu, and never had any, I wonder how common eating frogs is nowadays. Escargots seem much more common, to cite something else we're known for.

I guess eating frogs might be more common in South East Asia? Frog leg porridge is really easy to find in Singapore, for example.

Frogs are very popular in Vietnam, served in all kinds of ways.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#85

Re; This particular quote from the article… > "Stop confusing productivity with laziness. While no one likes admitting it, sheer laziness is the No. 1 contributor to lost productivity." I was taught growing up that if it's something you must do anyhow, then true laziness is finding the simplest and most effective way to do a given task quickly and correctly the first time so that you don't have to waste time and effo…

My father runs a business, one day many years ago in his shop he needed help moving a bunch of material. I explained it would be a lot faster to do it a different way, and he commented that would be the lazy way to do it. It wasn’t the first time I’d run into this thinking, though it has stuck with me ever since.

I explained this isn’t about exerting less effort, but that for the same effort we get a heck of a lot more done. I guess that’s when I first realized that management consulting can be a good thing.

Of course, 30 years later, I know management consultants are often frauds that have no idea what they are talking about or doing. They make business benefits by slowing wage growth and by essentially forcing smaller groups of people to do more work by laying off their coworkers. Not the efficiency I had in mind.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/04/09/how-mba-wieldi...

The protestant work ethic is a powerful tool, but people need to know that it is a religious value now woven into society. Not to avoid doing productive things, because I think it can provide the most amazing successes and a wonderful life, but to be aware that it is horribly abused in America by business management. “Idle hands are the devil’s hands.” And it drives all sorts of compulsion.

None of this is new, but if I could go back in time, I would find Chuck Palahniuk, and explain to him that the problem in our society isn’t the banks, but the big consulting firms. Oh that would be a much more satisfying ending to Fight Club.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of Supernatural's Crowley optimizing hell to just be one big line where everyone just has to stand and wait. The simpler solution.

How would we describe the state of standing and waiting for all eternity? Being in limbo, perhaps?

Inthinkblimbo would be waiting alone. This is waiting with people you can communicate with. Thats right. Hell is other people.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#87
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's quite rare. I tried once because a friend was visiting from the US and wanted to try. With a bit of research, I found a restaurant specialised in frog, but yes, they aren't common.

Idk, I went to a lot of restaurant that had frog legs in their menu. On the other hand I had snails only once. But I think "traditional" french restaurant are not that common anymore in anycase. My city is full of restaurant from all over the world or thematic restaurant, only an handful of "classic" french restaurant (and its not a bad thing, I love the variety).

Now that I think of it, I remember that when I was a kid (40 years ago), occasionally my mother would cook snail/frogs. Snails more than frogs actually. Maybe it's one of these traditions that we're losing.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#88
post #52

Regarding pomodoro: I've found that 5 minutes of rest is not enough. Through trial and error I've settled on 30min work and 20min(!) of rest. I have to force myself to stop working when my timer is up, otherwise my productivity that day goes down. On one hand it's just a somewhat smarter way to eat frogs, on the other it doesn't feel so. I suppose half of the problem is not knowing what amount of frog is too much for…

I find it really depends on how motivated I am for the task. If I’m really motivated I can focus for hours and not feel bad at all.

My observation is that even when I'm highly motivated I shouldn't go over the scheduled time, otherwise my energy to work will drop and with it, motivation.

It's counter-intuitive to say the least.

Perhaps there's something about sitting down for extended periods of time that causes this effect.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#89
post #63

The topic is nice, but above all I thoroughly enjoy the writing. I feel like I get a lot more done precisely because I don't like to eat frogs. I sleep until I'm rested. I don't touch my computer until I've had tea on the balcony. I work on what feels right, when it feels right, for as long as it feels right. If the weather is nice, I'll hop on my bicycle and forget about work. But when something sparks my interest,…

When I interviewed for my current job, I had to take psychology test and I'm very skeptical to those kind of tests. The guy that ran the test explained that this wasn't about putting me into a colored box but trying to figure out what I naturally preferred to do in a work situation with the idea being that things that I enjoy are probably things that I'm good at because it takes less energy to perform. I don't know if it works but it's an interesting idea, things that takes less energy, you do more and you're probably more proficient at it.

Re: Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs

#90

This is a great article but the best part is an off hand link to a book review of A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression [1] which includes choice quotes like > The writer George Jean Nathan claimed that before the 1920s, there existed only eight basic sandwich types: Swiss cheese, ham, sardine, liverwurst, egg, corned beef, roast beef, and tongue (yes). But by 1926, he “claimed that he had counted…

> The writer George Jean Nathan claimed that before the 1920s, there existed only eight basic sandwich types

This is 2022 - you can get old cookbooks from archive.org and check if Nathan was right.

He wasn't.

For example, "The up-to-date sandwich book : 400 ways to make a sandwich", by Eva Greene Fuller. Published in Chicago in 1909. https://archive.org/details/uptodatesandwich00full/page/n7/m...

Or, a generation earlier in 1884, the book "Salads and Sauces" by Thomas Jefferson Murrey (New York) has a chapter on sandwiches. https://archive.org/details/saladsandsauces00murrgoog/page/n... including "Apple Sandwich", "Anchovy Sandwich", "Beef, Raw, Sandwich", "Brie Sandwich", "Caviare Sandwich", "Clam Sandwich", "Curry Sandwich", "Dandelion Sandwich", "Duck Sandwich", and so on for several more pages, ending with "Welsh Sandwich". Look under "Goose Liver" for the foie gras entry.

I hope I helped save your meal!

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